As Virgin Galactic enters final preparations for the first rocket-powered flight of SpaceShipTwo from its Spaceport America operational facility in New Mexico, the company has added two additional pilots to its ranks.
A 15th batch of Starlink satellites reached orbit on Oct. 24, SpaceX’s second launch within a week to build up an initial 1,450-member broadband communications network.
The U.S. Space Force has not closed the door on helping industry fund a “manufacturing on orbit” concept, meaning building parts for satellites while in space, according to the service’s acquisition executive.
NASA recently conducted certification baseline reviews of the three U.S. companies vying to make landers that will transport astronauts to the Moon by 2024—Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX.
Firefly Aerospace, which plans to debut its Alpha small satellite launch vehicle this year, has signed contracts with Spire Global and Geometric Space Corp. for multiple flights.
NASA and the European Space Agency have signed contracts with privately owned Nanoracks to use the company’s Bishop airlock, which is due to be delivered to the International Space Station next month.
Satellite network operators Inmarsat and Hughes Network Systems announced a “strategic collaboration” on Oct. 20 to provide in-flight connectivity designed for commercial airlines in North America.
With the arrival of 60 more Starlink satellites into orbit on Oct. 18 and another 60 due to launch this week, SpaceX intends to roll out public trials of its high-speed internet service before year’s end.
The Streamlined Launch and Reentry Licensing Requirements final rule allows commercial space operators to acquire a single license to conduct multiple launches from multiple sites.
Stockholm is planning to make investments in the planned launch site, near Kiruna in the north of the country, that would enable smallsat launch as early as 2022.
Rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts have been living aboard the orbital outpost for 20 years. Here are some other numbers behind the milestone.
The reserve could support perhaps 1,100 lunar personnel living and working permanently in the cislunar realm to grow a future $3 trillion annual space economy, ULA president and CEO Tory Bruno says.
The seven-year-old startup targeting end-of-life and debris-removal services for low Earth orbit satellites and beyond has landed $51 million in new venture capital from several investors.
Momentus will become the next publicly traded new-space venture in early 2021, and the first self-described space infrastructure, upon closure of a deal announced Oct. 7 for blank-check company Stable Road Acquisition to buy the satellite orbit-mover startup.
Airbus is preparing for the launch of the first of four Pleiades Neo satellites, designed for improved resolution and more frequent revisits in Earth observation, and simultaneously working on a lower-cost generation.
